What the profile screens for
Radio-altitude behaviour is implausible, discontinuous, disagreeing, or inconsistent with terrain and aircraft position.
Why it matters
Erroneous radio altitude can affect warnings, automatic landing, callouts, flare, ground logic, and go-around behaviour.
Build the event around relationships—not one number.
Define the operating context
Identify the approach / landing / go around state, aircraft configuration, location, and any required external data before applying logic.
Screen the signal relationship
Use validated combinations of radio altitude channels, terrain elevation, position; avoid treating one isolated value as the whole event.
Confirm it is a genuine event
Check polarity, units, source, recording rate, dropouts, air/ground logic, persistence, and false-positive mechanisms.
Connect data to the safety question
Review procedures, reports, weather, airport and traffic context, exposure, recurrence, and the strength of the related barriers.
Recorded signals that may help explain the event.
Radio altitude
Height derived from radio altimetry, normally representing the distance from the aircraft to terrain directly below within the system's operating range.
Open parameter guide ↗discrete / modeAutopilot status
Engagement and mode states for automatic flight-control systems; useful analysis normally needs more than a single on/off bit.
Open parameter guide ↗discreteLanding gear status
Command, position, lock, and ground-sensing states associated with the landing gear; these are separate signals with different meanings.
Open parameter guide ↗Questions before conclusions
- Q1
Are radio altitude channels, terrain elevation, position valid, correctly decoded, time-aligned, and sampled well enough for this event?
- Q2
What changed immediately before, during, and after the radio-altimeter anomaly indication?
- Q3
How do aircraft configuration, weather, airport geometry, automation state, and crew reports change the interpretation?
- Q4
Which current flight manual, SOP, maintenance, or operator event definition controls the final conclusion?
Safety topics that broaden the event review.
Radio-altimeter integrity
Accuracy, availability, disagreement, interference, and downstream use of height-above-terrain data during low-altitude operation.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-103 · ATM, navigation & airspaceLevel bust
Unauthorized or unintended deviation from an assigned, cleared, or procedure altitude or flight level and the barriers that should catch it.
Open topic profile ↗Flight-Deck Automation
Use mode awareness, active monitoring, and aircraft-response verification to keep automation aligned with crew intent.
Open topic brief ↗Human FactorsHuman Factors and Fatigue
Study how workload, fatigue, expectation, communication, interface design, and organizational conditions shape performance.
Open topic brief ↗Flight OperationsControlled Flight Into Terrain
Understand how a controllable aircraft can be flown into terrain or an obstacle through path, altitude, navigation, monitoring, or situational-awareness breakdowns.
Open topic brief ↗12 useful starting points
Terminology and topic relationships select these links; the publisher source remains authoritative.
Radio Altimeter erroneous values
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for navigation and surveillance. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 21007 — SAFO 21007, Risk of Potential Adverse Effects on Radio Altimeters when Operating in the Presence of 5G C-Band Interference
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for aviation safety. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceAnnual Safety Review 2025
EASA's review uses occurrence and accident information to describe performance across aviation domains and to support the European safety-risk-management process.
Open official sourceStatistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, 1959–2024
Boeing's 56th annual statistical summary organizes commercial-jet accident data using stated definitions and the CAST/ICAO occurrence taxonomy.
Open official sourceIATA Annual Safety Report — 2024
IATA's 61st annual report provides an interactive, method-defined view of commercial aviation accident performance and contributing-factor classifications.
Open official sourceSafety Management Manual (Doc 9859), Fourth Edition
ICAO's fourth-edition manual explains how safety data, risk management, assurance, culture, and governance work together in State and service-provider safety management.
Open official sourceGo-Around Decision-Making and Execution Project — Final Report
The Flight Safety Foundation project examines go-around policy compliance, decision biases, operational pressures, and the risks that also need to be managed during go-around execution.
Open official sourceSAFO 14002 — SAFO 14002, Global Positioning System ( GPS )/Global Navigation Satellite System ( GNSS ) Navigator/Autopilot Compatibility
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and navigation and surveillance. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 09014 — Concepts for Fatigue Countermeasures in Part 121 and 135 Short-Haul Operations
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 08005 — Preflight of helicopter hydraulic systems to include validation of control movement smoothness and identification of adverse flight control “stick-jump.”
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and airworthiness and systems. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 08015 — Preflight check of helicopter hydraulic systems to include validation of control movement smoothness and identification of adverse flight control “stick-jump”
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and airworthiness and systems. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 06004 — Approach and landing accident reduction: Sterile cockpit, fatigue
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for approach and landing and human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official source